On behalf of Selection Committee members Clayton Dreger, Jill Hardy, Adam Speirs and Ken Wiebe, Golf Manitoba is pleased to recognize the 2023 Amateur Golfer of the Year Award winners.
This year’s recipients were announced on October 25, 2023, at the annual Golf Manitoba Awards presented by AVID GOLF that was held at the Glendale Golf & Country Club.
Rhonda Orr of Southwood Golf & Country Club is the 2023 Female Amateur Golfer of the Year.
Orr, 62, from Winnipeg, won the Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championship and Super Senior Championship. She finished third in the Diamond Athletic Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, fourth at the British Columbia Women’s Senior Championship, T7 at the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship and ninth at the Diamond Athletic Women’s Amateur Championship. The Southwood Golf & Country Club member also qualified for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.
Orr has won the last eight consecutive and 10 of the last 11 Hodson Financial Women’s Senior Championships. With the selection, it is the fifth time that Orr has been recognized as Female Amateur Golfer of the Year (2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023).
Braxton Kuntz of Breezy Bend Country Club is the 2023 Male Amateur Golfer of the Year.
Kuntz, 19, from Winnipeg, won the Manitoba Match Play Championship presented by St. Vital Dental Centre and the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship. Representing Nicholls State University (NCAA) south of the border he placed fourth in the Gulf Coast Collegiate Championship, T6 at the Colin Montgomerie Invitational and T7 at the Tunica National Intercollegiate Championship. The Breezy Bend Country Club member was also T8 at the Elmhurst Invitational and T9 at the Glencoe Invitational.
Kuntz was the first player in Manitoba to win both the Manitoba Junior and Men’s Amateur Championship in back-to-back seasons (2021 and 2022). He is also just the third player to have won the Men’s Amateur Championship in three consecutive years (Todd Fanning 1990, 91, 92 and R.J Reith 1935, 36, 37).
With the selection, it is the third time in as many years that Kuntz has been named Male Amateur Golfer of the Year (2021, 2022, 2023).
Kuntz was unavailable to attend the awards banquet in person as he is currently in his junior year at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
About the Golf Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year Award – The Manitoba Amateur Golfer of the Year award recognizes outstanding performance by Manitoba golfers in all levels of competition with the first award presented in 1975. In 2015, the award was re-established to include both a female and male category.
About Golf Manitoba – Golf Manitoba is the governing body for golf in the province of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. Its mission is to develop, promote, govern and service the sport of golf for the benefit of all participants.